Uncle Doc's Card Closet Comes to Life!

As a collector, I have long had a dream to have all of my cards neatly organized and accessible.  Ever since I left the nest, my collection has been either separated in multiple States, boxed-up, or completely disheveled in a state of disarray…until now.

When I moved into my current house, the room above the garage was unfinished.  The room was 20 feet by 21 feet, but had a weird nook that was roughly 2 feet by 9 feet.  Before I started laying insulation, flooring and installing drywall, I framed this 18 square foot nook to become a closet.

 Long, narrow and empty.

Over the years, this closet held my cards, but it also held my wife’s scrapbooking materials, toys, musical instruments, etc.  In essence, this closet was a huge junk drawer, and due to its narrow nature, made accessing my cards impossible.  I’d have to move a ton of stuff just to get to my cards, and then I might have to move 20 card boxes just to locate the box I was looking for, which was highly inefficient and maddening.

To add to this, my wife detests baseball cards.  Ok, I’ll be fair, she doesn’t mind the cards, just the sheer number I have and the fact that they’re unorganized.  She is a clutter freak (like me), so I thought it was high-time that I do something about it.

A few months ago, I did a massive overhaul on the bonus room.  Gleaned toys, reorganized the room, and emptied the closet.  Around the same time, I decided to get back into the blogging world; redid the blog format, came up with new ideas and got a custom url.  So, the next logical step was to actually create Uncle Doc’s Card Closet in the flesh, or make that cardboard, wood and metal.

The original closet held lots of boxes...

...and even more boxes!
 

I realized that if I was going to utilize this narrow closet, all of my existing storage boxes had to go.  The 2,000, 3,200 and 5,000 count boxes are not dimensionally sized properly to maximize my storage capacity.  I measured the closet and found the width to be 23 inches, which led me to realize that I needed 3,000 count boxes that are 11 inches wide.

Now knowing the boxes I needed, I hit the local card shop to find out they’re charging $4 a box.  Uh, no thanks.  Next up was the internet, and Amazon was a joke, as was eBay.  Eventually I landed at Blowout Cards, and they had awesome prices and free shipping for orders over $150.  After a few days of hemming and hawing, I finally pulled the trigger last Thursday and ordered fifty 3,000 count boxes, fifty 800 count boxes, fifty 660 count boxes, fifty 200 count boxes and 200 penny sleeves to break the free shipping barrier.  Nothing like free shipping on 80+ pounds of supplies that arrives the next day!

So, beginning Friday night, I began folding boxes, and folding boxes, and folding boxes, and folding boxes until I thought my mind would fold in on itself.  On Saturday, I began merging my cards by manufacturer.  On Sunday, I went to the hardware store, armed with a paper full of dimensions and a tape measure.

This all led to yesterday, where I installed two sets of custom shelving, and moved my entire collection from the old boxes to the 50 brand new 3,000 count super shoes.

Shelving on the left side of the closet

Shelving on the right side of the closet

The left side of the closet holds all my sets and wax, while the right side has all my loose cards in the 3,000 count boxes that are arranged eight boxes to a shelf.  I even had a place for my binders and supplies.  All of the cards are now accessible and neatly organized, and the most boxes I have to move is three in order to get to a box.

Left side: Wax, sets and 10 super shoes!

Right side: Binders and 40 super shoes! 

After seven long years, Uncle Doc’s Card Closet finally exists!  But wait, there will be more to come!